JOEL DOESN'T OPERATE IN THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT
1 Corinthians 12: Spiritual Gifts: Unity in Diversity
1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant:
7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all:
8 for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit,
9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit,
10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.
HE DOESN'T USE HIS WEALTH TO HELP THE POOR AND NEEDY.
Galatians 2: 10 They desired only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I also was eager to do.
HE DOESN'T PREACH THAT PEOPLE SHOULD REPENT OF THINGS LIKE APOSTLE PAUL DID IN 2 Corinthians 7:
1 Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
2 Open your hearts to us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have cheated no one.
3 I do not say this to condemn; for I have said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together.
4 Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort. I am exceedingly joyful in all our tribulation.
5 For indeed, when we came to Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were troubled on every side. Outside were conflicts, inside were fears.
6 Nevertheless God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus,
7 and not only by his coming, but also by the consolation with which he was comforted in you, when he told us of your earnest desire, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more.
8 For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it. For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while.
9 Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing.
10 For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.
11 For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter.
12 Therefore, although I wrote to you, I did not do it for the sake of him who had done the wrong, nor for the sake of him who suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear to you.
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SELF DELIVERANCE http://wp.me/p2M7AJ-11r
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Joel Osteen Blasphemes "I Am"
By Anthony Wade (about the author)
God
said to Moses, "I am who I am." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel,
"I am has sent me to you.'" -- Exodus 3: 14 (ESV)
If you heard there was a new Christian
book coming out entitled, "The Power of I Am", you might get very excited at
first. It could be a fantastic journey through the awesome attributes of God!
Perhaps it is an in depth study on the seven "I am" statements from Jesus in
the Gospel of John. Maybe it is a look at the incredible encounter Moses had
with God when the creator of the universe told us His glorious name -- I Am!
Either way, what a subject for believers to embrace. A God focused book about
the God who saved us while we were yet still sinners. The God who is the bread
of life, the light of the world, the good shepherd, the resurrection and the
life, the way the truth and the life and the vine to our branches. Only the
truly reprobate could take the moment when God personalized Himself to the
human race and make it about us. Only someone who has no clue about doctrine
and less understanding of blasphemy could take the amazing concept of I Am and
turn it into a decree and declare, word of faith, nonsensical heresy. In other
words, only Joel Osteen.
Beloved we have no more time left to be coddling
wolves. I understand that Joel seems like a great guy. He has a million dollar
smile and a positive, uplifting, motivational gift that few have. None of that
is going to matter when we are standing before Christ giving account and
discover that He never knew us. I cannot tell you how many brothers and sisters
give a nod and a wink when it comes to Osteen. Oh what harm is he doing! He
makes me feel better about myself! It is time to stop making our salvation to
be just about us. There are other people out there and they do not need to hear
that this is their best life now. They need to hear they are a sinner and
Christ died to save them. The gospel Joel preaches is no gospel at all. It is
completely different with a different Jesus that has zero power to save anyone.
The Bible teaches us about those who would bring a different gospel:
I am astonished that you are so quickly
deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a
different gospel-- not that there is another one, but there are
some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should
preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be
accursed. As we have said
before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to
the one you received, let him be accursed. - Galatians 1: 6-9 (ESV)
So Joel Osteen's new book is entitled,
"The Power of I Am" but it has nothing to do with God. It has to do with you.
It has to do with the power Joel says is inside of you. He thinks so little
about God that he cannot even see how utterly blasphemous it is to take the
name of the Lord, I Am, and use it to prop up his word faith heresy. It is
staggering in it insolence and obliviousness. This book idea came out of the
popularity of a sermon he gave by the same title. Oprah loved it so much she
used it in her life class series and Joel was happy to come on and pitch it.
Here is a link to the sermon:
The opening premise is that what follows
our self-statements that begin with "I am" determine our life. That what
follows the words "I am" will "come looking for you." So if you choose to say I
am ugly, then ugliness will come looking for you. If you say I am poor then
poverty will seek you out. The good news according to Joel is that we get to
choose the I am statements that come out of our mouth. So if we say, I am
healthy then health will start looking for us. If we say I am blessed then
blessing will start looking for us. The principle he claims is at work here is
that the positive I am statements "trigger God" to send these things to you.
I kid you not. He actually said that.
For the pro-Joel crowd who cannot see the enormity of damage he causes in the
kingdom we need to pause here and consider these opening heresies. God is not
up in heaven waiting for us to say positive things about ourselves so He can
finally release blessings upon us. He is not some narcissistic tooth fairy. He
is omnipotent and that means all-powerful. Who is god in the scenario Joel has
outlined? We are! Our words control God! What absurdities! Imagine a person
seeking God because they were just diagnosed with terminal cancer and they hear
this nonsense. That all they have to do is say I am healthy every morning and
then God will be activated to send health their way. Then they get worse. Then
they die. Then they go to hell because they were separated from God and Joel
did nothing to help the separation. Instead he sold her some magic beans that
had no magic in them at all. What damage is then done to her family who watched
her say these silly self-help statements every morning while she was dying?
Will they ever want to come to God? Probably not. Probably an entire family
wiped out from the possibility of salvation even though the cancer may have
been the triggering event to send that woman seeking the Lord! At one point
Joel says that even if you are poor you should say I am well-off. How would
that work in the slums of third world countries Joel? If your theology is only
good for the suburbs then it is by definition false. So we come to the first
Bible twisting of this sermon:
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for
good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
- Ephesians 2: 10
(ESV)
To Joel, because the New Living
Translation (NLT) says "masterpiece" instead of workmanship, this means that
God wants us to constantly remind ourselves that we are a masterpiece. A work
of art. One of a kind. Me, me, me. The problem is that the NLT often misses the
mark when it comes to good translation and to quote verse ten here out of
context is borderline criminal. Verse ten is part of a teaching on the new way
of grace versus the old way of works. That we cannot by our own works do
anything. That we are actually God's workmanship, created by Him for His good
pleasure and to do His works He has laid out for us. Powerful when you meditate
on it but Joel Osteen takes it and turns it into a really bad Saturday Night
Live skit of the Stuart Smalley show.
Next up Joel wants to use the Bible to
show people who spoke positively about themselves. So he heads to the Psalms,
which are largely very uplifting and positive and refers us to Psalm 139 where
David said, "I praise you because you made me in a wonderful way." Osteen
then wonders what it would be like if we all talked about ourselves like David
did. So what's wrong with that preacher? Two things. First it misrepresents
what God is trying to get across in Psalm 139 and secondly, it cherry picks a
verse and makes a false assumption about David. So you can ascribe to Joel's
teaching if you like but do not delude yourself into thinking it is remotely
what God said and if we are not approaching the Bible to hear from God then why
approach it at all? Psalm 139 is not about David positively confessing who he
is. It is a celebration of the omniscience and omnipresence of God Almighty!
The one verse he references out of context is meant to marvel at the work God
has done in creating us. It is to bring glory to God but Joel Osteen uses it to
teach people to bring glory to themselves. Secondly however, he leaves the
listener with the impression that David believed in positive confession and the
word faith tenets when nothing in Scripture indicates that. It is just as easy
to find verses David wrote that were of the opposite emotions:
My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death have fallen upon
me.Fear and trembling come upon me, and horror overwhelms me.And
I say, "Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest;yes,
I would wander far away; I would lodge in the wilderness; SelahI would hurry to find a shelter from the raging wind and tempest." -
Psalm 55: 4-8 (ESV)
What? David confessing that his heart is
in anguish? That the terrors of death have fallen upon him? That horror
overwhelms him? Doesn't he realize that anguish, terror, and horror will seek
him out? What absolute nonsense from Osteen. What is more disturbing however is
that this teaching will slaughter sheep. It will lead people to hell yet we
think because he does it with a smile we ought to give him a pass. But we
should not and hopefully the next scripture abuse is enough to convince us.
Osteen tells the story of Sarai, the wife of Abraham. He explains that because
a woman not bearing children was looked down upon Sarai must have had a lot of
bad "I ams." Joel said he could see her saying, "I am a failure,
I am not attractive, I am inferior." But now she has this promise from God
that as an older woman she was going to have a baby but according to Osteen,
"God knew it would never come to pass unless He changed her I ams."
He would go on to say that this was so imperative that God changed her name to
Sarah, which means princess. So according to Pastor Joel, now Sarah had to hear
over and over again that she was a princess every time someone said her name.
Good morning princess (Sarah). Pass the ketchup princess (Sarah). This way it
got down on the inside of her. So she went from I am a failure to I am a
princess. Wow, what a story! What a tale of transformation! If only it were
true! But it is not beloved. NONE of this is true. None of it is accurate. None
of this is scriptural. Let's go down the list of bible twisting:
1) While it is true that barrenness for
women was looked down upon Joel reads into scripture all of the negative
"I ams." Nowhere does the Bible even hint that Sarai said all of
these negative things about herself.
2) Once again the god Osteen is
preaching about is not the God of the Bible. The notion that God could not
bring something He wanted to pass unless we changed our self talk is ludicrous.
It is arrogantly ludicrous.
3) Osteen teaches here that God changed
her name to Sarah in order to change her self image and reverse the curse of
the negative I ams. Perhaps Joel should have checked some research materials
first. The names Sarai and Sarah mean the same thing in Hebrew - princess. This
eviscerates his entire premise that now she heard from everyone she was a
princess because her former name meant the same exact thing. Most scholars
believe that the true significance of the name change is a seal of the covenant
God was making. Why let thousands of years of solid research and bible teaching
stop you when you got books to sell?
Beloved if you read this and think it is
no big deal that is really a big problem. That someone would abuse the sacred
Word of God for what amounts to shameful monetary gain should offend us. Forget
Kentucky clerks who do not understand the Bible. This is where we ought to feel
grieved in our spirit because not only is His Word being butchered but it is
being done to lead people away from Christ! For the unsaved person at his
church that day do you think their biggest problem is they don't think highly
about themselves? Probably the opposite! Their biggest problem is they do not
know Jesus Christ. It would be as offensive as if someone preached that when we
say the right "I ams" we invite the goodness of God. As if His
goodness needs an invitation from our desperately wicked hearts. Yet that is
exactly what Osteen says in this sermon. It would be as offensive as if someone
said that the words we speak can bless or curse our future. You guessed it
beloved. He said it during this sermon. As if we control the blessings of God
by merely speaking it. As if we can actually lay a curse upon ourselves with
our words even though Jesus broke every curse at Calvary! The unmitigated gall!
But he was not done as Osteen next rips a verse out of context from the Prophet
Joel where God was telling the nations to not look for excuses to avoid the
coming war. The line is - let your weak say I am strong. What Joel Osteen does
to this is breathtakingly evil:
"Scripture
says, let the weak say I am strong. So let the sick say I am healthy. Let the
poor say I am well-off." - Joel Osteen
Osteen of course added the second and
third lines. They are not in the Bible. Can you imagine someone about to lose
their home and this is what they are told God is saying? Or someone very ill. There
was a story a few weeks back about a woman who refused cancer treatment because
she was believing her "seed faith" was going to heal her by all the
money she was sending in to Kenneth Copeland's ministries. She of course died. May
God have mercy on Kenneth Copeland because he will answer for ever sheep he has
slaughtered in pursuit of the riches of this world. The same goes for Joel
Osteen. Even though this is an enormous amount of heresy for less than a half
hour of preaching, Osteen was not quite done yet. He next goes into the story
of the 12 spies and teaches that the 10 with the bad report simply had bad
"I ams" while Caleb and Joshua had good "I ams." As silly
as this is what he does next is far more egregious:
"These
ten spies went on to say, "Moses, why did you even bring us here. We will
die in the wilderness." God answered back something very powerful. He said
in Numbers 14:28 "I will do for you exactly what you have said. You said
you were going to die in the wilderness, so you will die in the
wilderness." God is saying the same thing to us. I'm going to do exactly
what you've been saying." - Joel Osteen
What? Beloved this is why understanding
scripture is so crucial. The point here was not that they had negative I ams. It
was that they had no faith in God. More importantly however is the presumptive
exhortation that God is saying the same thing to us today. Is this sinking in
yet? How wrong is it to fill believers and those seeking God with false hopes
of fairy tales regarding God. That He is just waiting for us to speak so that
He might act. Once again, that makes us God, not Him. In the theology of Joel
Osteen, we are gods. That is what word faith believes. A lot of it is centered
on the butchering of one particular scripture, which Osteen mentions throughout
this sermon:
Therefore it
is of faith that it might be
according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only
to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham,
who is the father of us all (as it is written, "I have made you a father of many
nations") in the
presence of Him whom he believed--God, who gives life to the dead and calls
those things which do not exist as though they did; - Romans 4: 16-17 (ESV)
Osteen teaches
at different points in this half hour that we are taught to call things that
were not as if they were. He openly admits that many of these affirmations may
not even be true but that we are to call things that are not as if they were. That
our words have the creative power of God. Let me assure you they do not. These verses
from Romans cannot be clearer. It is GOD who has the power to call things that
are not as if they were. That is because He is above our time. He has
foreknowledge. He knew Abraham was going to be the father of many nations even
before the child of promise was born. These verses do not teach us that we have
this power at all.
But therein lies
the rub beloved. The theology of Joel Osteen teaches us that we are in fact
little gods. That our words have the power to create when only God's does. That
we are to call things into existence when only God can. He is not a brother in
error. He is a wolf of the highest order. His intent is irrelevant. The only
thing that matters is his teaching. For years I have been warning against him. That
every day is not a Friday and this is not our best life. That we do not go to
church and worship for ourselves as his wife once famously quipped. We have to
start thinking of the people who are too young in the Lord to know any better
and those desperately seeking him who get taught this garbage. That if we just
think better of ourselves then all the riches of this life will be ours. The entire
concept of his latest book is utter blasphemy against the name of God. A revered
name. A name to fear. The name at which every knee shall bow and every tongue
confess. Instead, Joel Osteen took that name, made it about you, slapped a
glossy cover on it and for only $20 you can read about how great you art. Heaven
help Joel Osteen to repent and those who follow him, may the Lord show them
mercy. But for us who truly know better it is time to stop coddling the wolf. I
am has sent me to you belovedhttp://www.828ministries.com/articles/Joel-Osteen-Blasphemes-I-by-Anthony-Wade-Faith_God_Spirit-150917-530.html
One of the obvious results of Charismania
infiltrating the church is a very self-centered, narcissistic showy spirit
pervading our faith. Attend any random Pentecostal church and you will see what
I mean. Dancers and flaggers with fluorescent clothing distracting people away
from God during corporate worship. An exhibition in unbiblical tongues designed
to draw attention to the speaker instead of the Lord. False healings provided
with a swipe of the preacher's jacket or some absurd parlor trick usage of the
"Holy Spirit." Creation of false theologies out of whole cloth like
the "anointing" or "impartation." It has become so
pervasively bad that entire schools now exist that claim they can teach the
gifts of the Spirit ….
Sincerity means nothing. You can be sincere
and sincerely wrong. The only thing that matters is truth. The truth of
Scripture and doctrine is what leads people to salvation. False teaching is
what divides the body and leads people to hell by having them think they are
saved when they are not. These are not small matters beloved. The eternal
destinations of the souls of men are on the line. The bridal paradigm is false.
The dominionist theology is false. The Joel's army doctrine is false. Soaking
prayer, contemplative prayer, and eastern mysticism are false. Glory clouds,
gold dust, angel feathers and gem stones are false. Claiming to have seen the
Father is false. Claiming direct revelation to avoid being questioned is false.
Carnal worship music is false. Bethel is false. IHOP is false.
Reinhard Bonnke is false. Misty Edwards is
false. Bill Johnson is false. Mike Bickle is false. Now unfortunately, we can
add that Francis Chan is false as well
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